Chapter 12: Space Bus

Space bus travel was subsidized and tightly regulated under the Travel Assistance Act of 2224. Union Citizens took this service for granted, as it connected virtually every possible destination within Union Space, but the envy of so many other societies.

Roy had his head turned to the viewport on his right, rather than using the field screen he could have activated. The local sun was settling behind the distant horizon and sent its last rays of light over a sprawling orderly Union city. There were wide promenades lined with trees, and none of the buildings were extremely tall. He remembered the city was called Odenport and the biggest settlement on this pleasant world. Not far to the east the rolling forest-covered hills. A wide river towards the North appeared like a dark band, boats and eater ships, had turned into brightly lit tiny islands. Flyers and skimmers whisked through the evening sky, highlighted by their blinking red and green position strobes.

The space bus, a modern Leyland 4000, was not the only spaceship on the spaceport landing field. A Meteor freighter at the far end of the smoothly Durocrete pavement appeared to be unloading cargo in a steady stream of containers.

A beautiful all white cruise ship dwarfing the freighter and the space bus. Had just settled down on its landing struts. Robots and ground service crew appearing like tiny ants beginning their usual tasks of attaching umbilicals and passenger slide belts.

Other than a shuttle platform, there was nothing like that on Green Hell. No sprawling city either. He wondered what Ma Swanson and Clarion were doing right now. While Union time was the same everywhere and synchronized to the 20 standard hour day of Pluribus, local times differed greatly. According to his PDD, it was Three Hour E, which roughly translated to 5 am on the still widely used Old Terran Time clock. On Green Hell, it was around midday with Maxwell the local sun high in the sky.

Ma Swanson would most likely lean on the counter and chatting with a customer while Clarion her husband rummaged through drawers or boxes situated in the tall shelves, looking for something, usually in the wrong place.

He had no doubt Trond Iveland, one of the Cities Service Engineers was sitting across his friend H’Tkit, one of only two Klack who lived on Green Hel, playing Eggs and Grubbs while grunting something unpleasant about Off-Worlders.

Roy was thinking and remembering other faces he knew well and wondered where Sam and Charles were. This, of course, made him remember his parents and he wondered if he should feel ashamed, He did not feel the same loss or sadness anymore. No one forced them to go on a journey halfway across the Galaxy to investigate some xeno lifeform and get killed or perhaps abducted by pirates. There was plenty to research on Green Hell for centuries to come.

His thoughts took him back to his beloved jungles, he could almost smell it and feel the warm moist air. Hear a thousand sounds and he remembered Qaroniel. In times like this he had always felt terribly homesick and wanted to do nothing else but return to his planet and be carefree once more, but then his inner eyes conjured up the lovely face of Tanya and the urge to see her again was stronger than all the other feelings.

Cara, next to him had fallen asleep and of course, Partner was happily dozing with closed eyes.

He could feel the ever so slight change in pressure and knew the Space Bus was now sealed. Moments later they climbed into the nightly sky and left orbit shortly thereafter.

He decided to close his eyes as well for a little while and then find out if the Space Bus had an Avatar enabled GalNet terminal.

Cara opened her eyes and found both Roy and his partner sleeping while the Space Bus reached the Quasi threshold and transitioned into that thin layer of non-space were faster than light travel was possible.

She activated the privacy bubble of her seat and linked her wrist com to the larger field screen. The system isolated the transmission to a highly secure channel of GalCom and after she had identified herself with the complicated identification routine to her superiors.

“We are on our way to Xanadu now. “ She reported.

General Moansti, who had appeared on the screen, was a true Saresii. Besides his high ranking position in the PSI Corps, second only to General Lichfangh, the commandant of the PSI Corps, he was the leading elder of the Saresii Council. He was often found in the Saresii alcove at the Assembly.

Alegar was physically male, but like almost all Saresii physically appeared female, and was also a leading member of the Gray Cat society was known to very few.

The Saresii General acknowledged Cara and responded. “We have several assets in your vicinity. Your travel plans have been carefully leaked and we are certain it will be too much of a lure for those elements we aim to flush out to ignore.”

Cara could not help herself but sigh. “I hope we are doing the right thing. We almost blew it and put him and several teenagers in terrible danger.”

“I know, Cara. We were aware of the moles, but the extent of their infiltration was underestimated. The risks were known and we never lost sight.”

“It still caused the death of Aat Amenemhat and caused serious damage and suffering to the others that were abducted.”

“It exposed Ranes Aneurin, her father and Security chief of Belle Station. He is on the run, but we have a long leash on him. Cara, this is a dirty business and we can only fight back if we adapt to the same level.”

“He is not ignorant or simple. He figured it out that we use him as bait. He said. : And we are traveling like this, to draw them out. Being aboard a Saresii ship we could never be followed or abducted.”

“It is necessary, Cara. We try to keep a close eye on him, but this strange animal he calls Partner makes this very difficult. That thing teleports at a whim and we have yet to understand the strange connection. So far our best telepaths failed to understand their interaction.”

“I can’t either. I know they are PSI twins, there is no distinction I can detect between them, All I ever get is a wall of affection.”

“Do you know where he has been?”

“No, but I think he met a girl and is romantically involved.”

“Keep us posted.”

Paul still could not believe what he saw. There before him stood Sam Brown and right next to him, wearing a loose dust cloak, Charles, the Robot.

The big black man appeared even more imposing as he remembered. “Mr. Brown, is this really you?”

“Yes Paul, it is. Now, where is Martha?”

Paul burst into tears and buried his face in his dirty calloused hands. “I don’t know. She was sold a while back. No one bought me.”

Sam sighed. “You are lucky then.”

Charles pressed an Auto-Doc unit onto Paul’s chest, while Sam handed the thin man a canteen.”Drink slow and little sips.”

Charles demonstrated that he was indeed not a simple machine, his sexless syntho-voice clearly reflected genuine concern as it checked the Auto-Doc.”He is seriously malnourished, suffers from advanced stages of Malignant melanoma, gastric adenocarcinoma, intestinal parasitic infection, subdermal parasitic mite infection, and several open ulcers. The Auto Doc can contra affect the infestations and stabilize but strongly recommends med expert attention.”

Sam frowned. “Well we are still far from Union Space.”

Paul had ignored the advice and was now coughing and throwing up after he had emptied the canteen way to fast.

Again, the fierce and deadly Union military battle robot acted in an unusual caring fashion, using a soft cloth to help Paul.

Paul Masters looked around. They were in a small room, apparently carved out of the natural reddish rock of the canyon walls. It featured a sleeping pad with several blankets, a single lumi plate glued to the rough ceiling and a door. He finally realized he was a slave no more. “How did you find me?”

Sam sat down on the sleeping pads. “Roy sent us, and we followed some leads.”

“Roy? Oh, my son.”

“Yes, your son. Now tell us every detail you remember about the ones that bought Martha.”

“She is gone. She was sold, now please get me home.”

Sam sighed. “I almost regret saving you, Paul. Even after all this you still care about nothing else but yourself. Again we need to know every detail you remember. We found you and we won’t give up until we either found your wife or confirm her demise.”

Paul swallowed. “I was a slave, they don’t tell us anything. They herded us into the sales coral and beings in dust cloaks selected the ones they wanted to buy and placed bids. Do you know how demeaning it is to be sold like that? Even more, demeaning is the fact that no one wants to buy you.”

“You are kidding, right? You are jealous of your wife because she was sold, but not you?”

“She was always picked over me. She was promoted over me at the Institute, she decided what we are to do. She was picked as the Science lead of that ill-fated expedition. She humiliated me aboard the Zengh He in front of everyone and then she was sold for sixty Fullwright polos, while no one even offered one sliver for me.”

Sam frowned. “I lost all respect for you when you first came to my farm and chose your own safety over that of your son and your wife, and now you make me feel sorry I rescued you.”

Sam then turned his attention to Charles “However we got something to go on. Sixty Fullweights is not a common sum for a slave. Even those bought for the Death Arenas of Sin 4 usually don’t go for that much.”

Charles rotated his head towards Sam. “How will this be helpful?”

“Sixty Full weights means there were at least two parties very interested and drove the price up. That means the seller should remember who the parties were and why Martha commanded such a sum.”

Paul scratched his sore covered skin. “What about me? When will we leave?”

“We going to clean you up, and get you aboard a passenger transport that will take you to Kaliment. From there you can catch a ship to Itheamh. There are Union companies around the spaceport.”

Paul feeling much better thanks to the Auto-Doc puffed his cheeks. “I am to do all this by myself? I am weak and need medical attention.”

Sam tried hard to keep his anger under control. In his time as a RAvE operative, he had to deal with similar attitudes. Most people he managed to rescue were grateful. But there were always a few like Paul. Sam had never done this for glory or expressed gratitude. But this was the first he knew on a personal level. Paul was the biological father of his beloved Roy.

Sam clenched his fists. “Only for the sake of Roy, am I not doing what I now want to do so badly. You were destined to be part of the Lizard poop composter, to put it bluntly, Mr. Masters. Significant resources were used to find you. We are far from Union Space and deep in Freespace where the Fleet can’t go, but instead of being gracious you act like the snotty prick you always been. Even the horrible ordeal you had to endure apparently did not affect your manners and conduct. Now get your naked arse cleaned up.”

The Assembly had declared war against the Kermac after their attack on the Maxwell system and the subsequent exposure of President Strong to be a Kermac agent.

While the Assembly debated eliminating the office of president altogether, the Union military machine began turning.

The Kermac embassy on Pluribus had been closed, but the representatives of other galactic civilizations were still there. The Togar, the Karthanians, even the mighty Nul, and the aggressive Shiss hurried to pledge their neutrality.

The Nul, however, warned both sides to remain respectful of Freespace and vowed to take action if the Freespace Treaty was violated by either side.

There were strong voices in the Assembly to disregard these warnings and sweep all Union enemies and all opposition out of existence for good.

Admiral McElligott lobbied hard alongside the ones calling for temperance and against further escalation.

While the Admiral of the Fleet remained the highest-ranking Union Fleet officer. Tactical and strategic command was now in the hands of the man everyone knew as the Eternal Warrior.

It did not take very long after the official declaration when a large fleet of the Galactic Council consisting primarily of Nogoll and Roxomani Units attacked from regions of Spinward to push fast and decisive towards Terra, Spqe, Luxor, and Pluribus. The Kermac with their Galactic Council allies hoped to end the war before the Union had a chance to react. What had been hastily planned by Kermac military leaders turned into a major defeat.

The resounding defeat and the decisive Union victory were attributed to the fact that the Union was far better prepared for that war than the Kermac, despite their spies and observers realized. Admiral Stahl predicted this move for quite some time as the most likely one and without much fanfare or attention fortified the border region and then led a daring recon operation with a handful of marines. Again as in so many accounts and stories, the Immortal Admiral donned a Destroyer Suit and spend no less than 3 weeks in a low emission approach across Kermac lines and obtained the information needed to determine the enemies staging areas and hasty war preparations.

This event, later known as the First Push Battle was only the beginning and three subsequent battle engagements left no doubt about the Unions military and technological superiority.

Kermac military leadership had always known that the Union could no longer be defeated in open battles, a fact previously denied as subversive propaganda by the Kermac High Command but now painfully and secretly accepted.